It’s Manziel Time

It’s Manziel time in Cleveland. I’ve discussed what I think of Cleveland in otherposts. The short story is that I think the decisions of the Cleveland Browns front office resemble those a robot with a combination of dissociative identity disorder and schizophrenia. Once again we get to examine an important decision in Cleveland: the benching of Brian Hoyer in favor of Johnny Manziel. First, the facts.

Fact #1: Brian Hoyer has not been good this year

Not been good is putting it very mildly. Worst in the NFL is more correct. No quarterback has been allowed to be as inaccurate – 9.4% below league average – as Hoyer and still throw so many passes – 387 attempts. His inaccuracy is on par with Zach Mettenberger, Mike Glennon, Drew Stanton, and Ryan Mallett, all quarterbacks that began the year as back-ups and are unlikely to find permanent starting jobs any time soon. All in all, I don’t think much of Hoyer’s individual performance this year.

Fact #2: It is December and the Cleveland Browns have a winning record

At the time of this writing, Cleveland has a 7-6 record in the winningest division in football. By my quick reckoning, this has happened four other times in the last twenty years. Why does it matter if Brian Hoyer has been the worst quarterback in the league up to this point? You have won seven games with the worst quarterback, something must be working. Cleveland’s pass defense is coming up big week after week, they’ve got a group of receivers that showed they can spar with the best of them, and their running game has shown signs of life throughout the season. You got to seven wins doing something right. Why are you throwing that away now?

Fact #3: We don’t know what Manziel will do over three games

No one has any idea what Johnny Manziel will do during the final three games of the season. I have a prediction of Manziel’s quarterback rating of 76.6, but that’s over four years not three games. What is the purpose of upsetting everything that the Browns have built over the course of the season on the scant hope that Manziel can help you out? No one has any algorithm that says Manziel will be any better or worse than Hoyer over these final three games. And it is very possible that Manziel could be worse.

Fact #4: Coaching tenure in Cleveland

Perhaps the number that actually explains what is going on here. The average tenure over the last three head coaches in Cleveland has been a glorious 1.67 years. Mike Pettine likely doesn’t want to lower that average even further than it already is. He knows that sticking with Hoyer will likely get him a .500 team. Perhaps he sees the writing on the wall and knows that .500 won’t be enough to save his job. I don’t know that is the case, but I wouldn’t put it past the Cleveland management.